SAVE THE DATES!
Saturday, November 1 - 18th Annual Professional Snow and Avalanche Workshop (PROSAW). The in-person session will be held at the Eccles Center Park City. 1750 Kearns Blvd, Park City, UT 84060. - Information and tickets are available here.
Saturday, December 6 - 18th Annual Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop (USAW). This session will be held in-person at the Wasatch Jr High School Auditorium. 3750 S 3100 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84109. Information and tickets are available here.
Final snow totals from this last storm are sitting between 4 and 8 inches, with under an inch of water. Upper Little Cottonwood is currently the winner of precipitation totals.
Through the weekend, cold temperatures stick around with mostly dry conditions and little to no snow, though a weak grazing front Sunday into Monday could bring isolated light precipitation to northern Utah’s higher terrain. Otherwise, skies clear and highs warm into the upper 60s to low 70s in the valleys.
These early storms could lay down our first weak layer of the season, though it’s too early to lose sleep over that. As you head out, watch where the snow melts and where it sticks, since any lingering snow could become a problem layer for future avalanches.
For now, it’s barely worth dusting off the skis or board, hiking boots will do fine. Snowpack across the Wasatch is still under 12 inches, and the main hazard is hitting rocks and other debris. Even with just a few small avalanches reported, a ride through this shallow snowpack could still be consequential.
Yesterday we saw a few shallow avalanches trickle in, including a
roof slide off the Hellgate Condos and a skier-triggered wind slab in
Gunsight at Alta, where a small slab broke on the old snow and ran the length of the chute. This is the first early reminder that once there is enough snow to ride, there is enough snow to slide.
Photo: Gunsight avalanche (LS)
We will continue to update the recent avalanches and observations as they come in.
